Takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri)

Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand. Jan 2, 2017

comments (5)

Thibaud Aronson

Lion

The closest you can get to seeing a wild Takahe these days... Posted 8 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  What an awesome creature, that came back from the dead. Had never heard of it before. Posted 8 years ago
2. 1. Thibaud Aronson
    
    Lion
    
    It's kind of odd actually. The genus Porphyrio is very cosmopolitan, probably because they are all very good fliers, surprisingly enough (eg an african swamphen recently turned up just off the coast of Brazil!). But there are only a few species, most of them widespread, and usally one, sometimes two species in one place. They are also all really similar. But then on the islands of New Zeland, we've got the Australasian swamphen, the massive South Island takahe, the now extinct North Island takahe, and the amazing Lord Howe swamphen, also extinct, which was pure white! A bunch of species also went extinct in Polynesia... Posted 8 years ago
  2. 1. Ferdy Christant
      
      Lion
      
      Very strange indeed. Perhaps the combination of distance and pace of change (mankind screwing things up) turns to be fatal? Posted 8 years ago
    2. 1. Thibaud Aronson
        
        Lion
        
        Well unfortunately I can't think of a single island that was colonized by humans and the associated cats, rats, pigs, etc, that did not lose a significant proportion of its endemic species...
        A combination of terrestrial breeding, often flightlessness in birds, no previous exposure to mammalian predators usually sealed their fate. Posted 8 years ago

The Takahē

The takahē, ''Notornis'', or South Island takahē , is a flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand and belonging to the rail family. It was thought to be extinct after the last four known specimens were taken in 1898. However, after a carefully planned search effort the bird was rediscovered by Geoffrey Orbell near Lake Te Anau in the Murchison Mountains, South Island, on 20 November 1948. The specific scientific name commemorates the Austrian geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter.

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Similar species: Crane-like Birds

Species identified by Thibaud Aronson

By Thibaud Aronson

Uploaded Mar 9, 2017. Captured Jan 2, 2017 14:25 in Ridge Rd, Army Bay, Whangaparaoa, New Zealand.

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PENTAX K-3
f/6.3
1/1600s
ISO800
300mm

Captured in the summer. More summer photos.